Professor Sir Richard Blundell delivers Nemmers Prize Lecture

On 17 May Professor Sir Richard Blundell delivered the Nemmers Prize Lecture, "Household Behavior and the Dynamics of Inequality", at Northwestern University.  Professor Blundell was awarded the 2016 Nemmers Prize in Economics for his important contributions to labor economics, public finance and applied econometrics.

You can find out more about the history of the Nemmers Award and past recipients on the Northwestern website

The lecture discussed the ways in which evolving inequality in individual wages and earnings passes through into inequality in household income and differences in consumption between households. Specifically, the lecture examined how families cope with unexpected changes in the earnings of family members. These coping mechanisms include decisions by other household members on whether, and to what extent, they should enter the labor market, and childcare arrangements. The lecture also discussed how a family’s existing savings influence these decisions, and the role of tax policies and social welfare programs.

Storify